WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2014 WORLD FOOD DAY Opening prayer God of all goodness and life, please continue to bestow on us the desire to protect and honor your great

creation that nourishes your people. Instill in us the willingness to see beauty in the creation of all that

nourishes us. We ask this in your name. +Amen.

Scripture passage Mark 4: 26-29

“He also said, “The Kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep

and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth

produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is

ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Reflection Genevieve Mougey; Poverty Education & Outreach Manager,

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development

In my corner of the world, mid October means harvest time. In many areas, farmers are burning the

midnight oil to cut their wheat, corn, and soybeans that will be used to feed people and livestock all

over the world. As I imagine farmers in their tractor cabs harvesting for us, I cannot help but reflect on

my own experiences “on the land.”

I am the daughter of a rancher’s daughter. My Odermann Grandparents worked their ranch and farm

next to the Teddy Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota for over 40 years. Growing up as a

child, I would look forward to my summers with great anticipation. My family would trek up north to

spend at least two weeks with my grandparents at the ranch. Our kids would get more and more

excited as we began to see the clover in the fields. We knew that this meant we would go climbing in

the hills, go riding in the beat up pickups, stack hay bales, weed the garden, help with branding, get

chased out of the house to catch rabbits, go feed the cows, and generally just get grimy and dirty. My

two week summer adventure represented one small way for me to contribute to our food supply.

As we would get older, we began to notice our mom speaking more nostalgically of us-- her kids- than of

her time on the ranch. She would mash up some of her favorite scriptures and farm wisdom. If we did

something and she was pleased or touched by our action, she would say, “The harvest is ready.” As her

growing child, I thought that was a ridiculous thing to say.

Today she says, “The harvest is in.” As her grown adult child it resonates with greater clarity what she

means. My mother articulates her understanding about her family’s stewardship and care for the ranch,

for creation, for her children and for humanity as a whole through the lens of this scripture from Mark.

She knows who the planter is—God. She knows that her response is to care and nurture. She knew her

job would be complete, when the grain was ripe. Then it would be time to harvest.

This is the earth the God created, and we are meant to just hold it for a time, to care for it, to nurture

and protect. This earth is not ours. This is the same care the Gospel writer, St. Mark is expressing in this

parable. When we care for the land, when we see and watch the seedlings grow, when we take note of

development, we should not be surprised what we will see upon harvest. We must pay attention to the

world around. We must care for the earth as stewards, as the farmer who carefully watches and tends

the fields; as the rancher, who spends days caring for creatures; as the urbanites, who care for streets

and parks; as parents, who care for children and are their first educators on what is holy and just.

General Intercession For favorable weather for those who harvest these days, let us pray to the Lord.

Catholic Social Teaching Pope Francis, “Message of Pope Francis for World Food Day 2013.”

“…However, the waste of food is but one of the fruits of the ‘throw away culture’ which often leads to

sacrificing men and women to the idols of profit and consumption; a sad sign of the ‘globalization of

indifference,’ which makes us ‘accustomed’ slowly to the suffering of others, as if it were something

normal. The challenge of hunger and malnutrition does not just have an economic or scientific

dimension, which refers to the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the food chain, but also and above

all and ethical and anthropological dimension....”